Citizen Police Academy Looks At Criminal Investigations

By Andrew Gorosko

Town police detectives gave residents at the Citizen Police Academy some glimpses of the grim and sometimes grisly situations that they encounter while investigating a variety of violence in seeking to solve local crimes.

At the May 13 session, Detective Sergeant Robert Tvardzik discussed police detective unit operations, criminal investigations, and crime scenes. Senior Detective Joseph Joudy described evidence collection. The 15 residents attending the informational academy at Booth Library also viewed the police department’s crime van, which is used at crime scenes for evidence collection.

The session on detective work was one of a series of academy meetings, which have been underway since March, on various aspects of local law enforcement. It is the eighth time that town police have held the academy during the last decade.

The academy includes a police station tour, a talk on the history of law enforcement, details about emergency dispatching, an explanation of the 911 system, information on police officer hiring, a discussion of crime prevention, explanations of motor vehicle law, details about drunken driving enforcement, as well as sessions on the use of force, criminal law, juvenile law, school law, and domestic violence law.

Academy participants also spend several hours with a police patrol officer on duty in a patrol car to gain a first-hand sense of police work. Sergeant Christopher Vanghele coordinates the academy.

 

Detective Work

“I’ve seen a lot of crime,” said Det Sgt Tvardzik, who has been a detective for 20 of the 29 years he has been with local police. He became head of the detective unit late last year.

Generally, Newtown is a relatively quiet place in terms of crime, but at times, the town experiences as much crime as anywhere, he said.

“We do have a little bit of everything in town…Law enforcement is a pretty exciting field right now,” he said.

To make graphic the points about the violent crime that detectives investigate, Det Sgt Tvardzik illustrated his talk with a series crime scene pictures, many of which are eight-by-ten-inch, black-and-white glossy photos depicting various gruesome events.

Besides the detective sergeant, the detective unit has three staff detectives, plus two school resource officers, and one youth officer. Newtown High School and Newtown Middle School each have one school resource officer. All the elementary schools are covered by the youth officer.

The police who work in the schools are busy, investigating student fights and instances of drug and alcohol possession, Det Sgt Tvardzik said. Many of the law enforcement situations that occur in school settings have their origins in the students’ homes, he said. 

The detective bureau investigates crimes that require more follow-up work than is possible by patrol officers. Such follow-up work often involves collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.

Besides violent crimes, detectives spend much of their time investigating what Det Sgt Tvardzik terms “paper crimes,” involving criminal acts such as identity theft. In such cases, the perpetrator illegally uses the personal information of another person, such as a social security number, for illicit purchases. Such crimes often are discovered well after they have occurred, the detective explained.

 Often such crimes occur via the Internet. Because the geographical locations involved in computer-based crimes are far-flung, the courts are still grappling with the jurisdictional aspects of the offenses, Det Sgt Tvardzik explained.

Also, such crimes are difficult to investigate due to the complexity of the offenses, he noted. The use of assorted mail drops by criminals committing Internet-based crimes to hide their identities poses challenges to police in solving such cases, he said.

Auction fraud committed via the Internet also has become a major problem, the detective said.

Besides Internet-based crime, detectives handle investigations into bad checks, involving criminal charges against people who write checks without the funds to cover them. Check forgery also requires investigation.

“There are many different types of ‘paper crime,’” Det Sgt Tvardzik said.

 

Burglary/Larceny

The detective unit handles the police department’s investigations of burglaries and larcenies. Such work involves inspecting crime scenes and correlating information gleaned there with the contents of various pawnshops in the region, where criminals often place stolen goods to obtain fast cash, Det Sgt Tvardzik said.

The local burglary rate has decreased, the detective explained.

“When drugs are cheap, crime goes down,” he said, noting that the recent relatively low price of illicit drugs has decreased pressure on criminals to burglarize and steal goods, which they would convert into cash to buy drugs.

When the price of illicit drugs rises, however, the incidence of property crimes, such as burglary and larceny, is likely to increase, he added.

Criminals steal motor vehicles as a way to raise money quickly. The demand for automotive spare parts propels auto theft as a criminal enterprise, with shopping center parking lots being the prime source of stolen vehicles, the detective noted.

Spare parts for Honda and Nissan vehicles are especially in demand, making the theft of those vehicles attractive to thieves, he noted. Air-bag assemblies and auto seats often are removed from the vehicles, providing a source of illicit spare parts, he said.

The detective unit also has the sobering job of investigating untimely deaths.

“We investigate all untimely deaths that occur in homes in Newtown,” Det Sgt Tvardzik said. “We treat each scene seriously,” in collecting evidence, as if a crime has been committed, he added.

Other than murders, the town has had a number of deaths that occurred under unusual circumstances, he noted.

Such cases are investigated to determine whether an untimely death happened due to natural causes, or was a suicide, or was a homicide.

In investigating such cases, detectives must substantiate certain facts in determining why a death occurred, he said.

Detectives may witness autopsies at the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office in Farmington in investigating such crimes.

To illustrate some points on violent deaths, Det Sgt Tvardzik displayed black-and-white crime scene photos from a Hell’s Angels dual killing at a bar in Sandy Hook Center in 1976. Those notorious shooting deaths stemmed from a feud.

During the past decade, the town has experienced relatively few murders. The last murder occurred in July 1999. Prior to that, a double-murder/suicide took place in November 1993.

Detectives also investigate various fatal industrial accidents, Det Sgt Tvardzik said.

“We have been, unfortunately, to too many tragic occupational deaths,” he noted.

“This is what we deal with every day. It’s real,” Det Sgt Tvardzik said.